Psalm 119:97-104

Mem.

O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have observed Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.^[1]

In two separate places in the Bible, individuals are instructed to take the word (or scroll) and eat it. Here the psalmist tells us that the Word of the Lord is sweet to the taste, sweeter in fact than honey. This imagery is more than mere wordsmithing. It indicates the depths of the psalmists love for and commitment to the Word of God. Note what he says! God’s commandments make him wiser than his enemies, give him more insight than his teachers, and make him wiser than those who are older.

What value do we attach to God’s Word? Are they mere words on a page or God’s Word to us, relevant in every age? Do they cause his to hate, which is a strong word, “every false way?” God’s Word gives us wisdom, insight, and understanding. By it alone we find strength and bright hope for all of our tomorrows. May we value God’s Word to us even just a fraction of the value this psalmist attached to it. Doing so will cause us to live more victoriously.

God our Father, holy is Your name! You alone are worthy of all our praise and adoration. We thank You for leaving us such a rich legacy in Your Word. May we fall in love with it as this writer obviously was. Keep us from indifference to it. Keep us from falling prey to the tricks and traps of our enemy who still seeks to steal, kill and destroy us. Hold us close so that we may be instructed by You as we read and study in Your Word. This we ask in the strong name of Jesus our Christ. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ps 119:97–104.